The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

News for November 2007

03.11.2007 People Can Be 'Fined' for Complaining to State Organs

On 15 January 2008 a presidential decree about additional measures on work with applications of individuals and legal organs will come into force.

03.11.2007 Homel: KGB Interrogates L.Sudalenka Concerning ‘Young Front’ Case

On 2 November the chair of Homel regional office of the republican NGO Legal Initiative Leanid Sudalenka was interrogated at the local KGB office as a witness in the criminal case concerning the activity of an unregistered NGO Young Front.

03.11.2007 Stanislau Kavaleuski Detained

In the morning of 2 November in Mahiliou the police detained the youth activist Stanislau Kavaleuski. Kavaleuski and his friends were going to the university, when a police car approached them. The policemen told that the youngsters reminded of the robbers who had committed a crime half an hour ago. The students were taken to a police station. There the policemen searched their belongings and found in Kavaleuski’s bag leaflets with the heading ‘The authorities rob the students!’

03.11.2007 Flash-mob Against Repeal of Social Benefits

At 1.20 p.m. about 10 youngsters lined up near the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences with a banner ‘No to repeal of the benefits’. They stood there for about 10 minutes and managed to hand out about 300 leaflets with the heading ‘Return our legal benefits’. The leaflet told about the liquidation of benefits to veterans of work, under-aged convicts of Nazi camps, disabled children, children before the age of three, ordinary policemen and the police administration. The leaflets also called the people to join the Social March that will take place on 4 November.

02.11.2007 Unknown Persons Beat 18-year-old Son of Vitsebsk Oppositionist Yan Dziarzhautsau

A member of the Conservative Christian Party Belarusian People’s Front Yan Dziarzhautsau thinks that the assault on his son could be conducted by the persons, who on 15 August sent to him a letter on behalf of Vitsebsk branch of Vitbsebsk branch of the Russian Nazi organization Russian National Unity (RNE).

02.11.2007 Belarusian Customs Officers Keep Tourists on Border

Since 4 p.m. on 1 November till now 15 busses with about 300 citizens of Belarus from Brest, Hrodna, Minsk and other settlements of Belarus have been detained in the neutral zone of the crossing point Makrany on the border with the Ukraine.

02.11.2007 Relatives of Missing People Direct ‘Bill of Indictment’ to Prosecutor’s Office

This document has been prepared by the lawyers and the relatives of the missing opposition activists and consists of more than 20 pages.

02.11.2007 Rechytsa: KGB ‘Checks’ Passport of Entrepreneur Leanid Nevar

Leanid Nevar has passed his passport to the passport and migration service because there were no more clean pages for visas. He paid for quick production of a new passport. They were also to transfer the valid permissive seal for foreign travel.

02.11.2007 Vitsebsk: Police Confiscate ‘Narodnaya Volia’

On 30 October at the railway station of Vitsebsk the police detained Ales Pazniak and Ales Yemialyanau. In their bags the policemen found about 400 copies of the non-state newspaper Narodnaya Volia. The activists were taken to Chyhunachny district police department of Vitsebsk and kept there for two hours. Then the activists were released and the newspapers were confiscated. This confiscation is plainly illegal even according to the present legislation, as the newspaper has a state registration and has been printed in conformity with the Belarusian laws.

02.11.2007 Ministry of Justice Warns Belarusian School Society

The Ministry of Justice of Belarus has issued an official warning to Belarusian School Society. The reason for the warning was that an exhibition devoted to the activity of an unregistered youth organization Young Front had taken in Hrodna office of BSS.

02.11.2007 New Detentions for Distribution of Materials Concerning Social March

On 2 November in Minsk the police detained one of the organizers of the Social March, the deputy chair of the Young Democrats Mikhail Pashkevich, and his friend Zmitser Kavalhin. The guys distributed agitation materials concerning the mass street action Social March that will take place in the center of Minsk on 4 November. The detainees were taken to the police department of Minsk tube.

02.11.2007 Lukashanets Proposes to Introduce Exam in Belarusian for Officials

The director of the Institute of Linguistics of the Academy of Sciences proposed to establish an additional demand for pretenders to work in the state organs. Aliaksandr Lukashanets proposed scientists to initiate a legal norm, according to which a good command of both languages would become an obligatory condition for employment to the organs of the state government.

02.11.2007 Souhayr Belhassen Establishes Committee in Defense of Andrei Klimau

On 1 November the visit of the president of the International Federation for Human Rights Souhayr Belhassen to Belarus ended. At the resulting press conference she stated that ‘the political regime of Belarus was the most repressive one in Europe’ and the charges against Dashkevich and Finkevich were ridiculous.

02.11.2007 Minsk: Five Days of Jail for Celebration of Halloween

In the evening of 31 October the participants of Halloween celebration Andrei Kim, Tatsiana Lashkarova, Valiantsin Sakalouski and Yury Shalin were detained by the police. They spent the night and the following day at Savetski district police department of Minsk. After 9 p.m. on 1 November they were taken to the remand prison in Akrestsin Street. The trials were appointed on 2 November.